At 10:04 AM 22/03/2006, you wrote:

>Hi All -
>
>My initial poking at the API and isql.exe suggests that FB does not
>understand UNC paths e.g. \\server\path\to\database.fdb
>
>Is this true or have I missed something?

It doesn't (and never has) recognised UNC paths. However, the Named
Pipes protocol uses an UNC-style format, which works ONLY if

a) server is the actual node name of the server (the one that appears
in My Computer on that machine);
and
b) the "\path\to\database" is an absolute path on that machine
and
c) the host machine is running a service-capable Windows.

Also, in all current releases of Firebird 1.5, database aliasing is
broken for Named Pipes (fixed in Fb 2).

Here's a Named Pipes connection string to a database that's in
d:\data on a server named billsbuddy:

\\billsbuddy\d:\data\mydatabase.fdb

./heLen